This image released by FX shows Keri Russell in a scene from "The Americans."

This image released by FX shows Keri Russell in a scene from "The Americans."

Photo: Associated Press

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Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi on "The Good Wife." (Photo by Eike Schroter/CBS via Getty Images)

Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi on "The Good Wife." (Photo by Eike Schroter/CBS via Getty Images)

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In this image released by HBO, Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears in a scene from "VEEP."

In this image released by HBO, Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears in a scene from "VEEP."

Photo: Patrick Harbron, Associated Press

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This image released by ABC shows Viola Davis, center, from the series, "How To Get Away With Murder."

This image released by ABC shows Viola Davis, center, from the series, "How To Get Away With Murder."

Photo: Nicole Rivelli, Associated Press

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This image released by Netflix shows Taylor Schilling in a scene from "Orange is the New Black."

This image released by Netflix shows Taylor Schilling in a scene from "Orange is the New Black."

Photo: JoJo Whilden, Associated Press

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Pierre Perrier and Ana Girardot in the Sundance TV series "The Returned."

Pierre Perrier and Ana Girardot in the Sundance TV series "The Returned."

Photo: Jean-Claude Lother

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Laurie Metcalf, Niecy Nash and Alex Borstein in "Getting On" by HBO.

Laurie Metcalf, Niecy Nash and Alex Borstein in "Getting On" by HBO.

Photo: HBO

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Jacob Pitts, Erica Tazel, and Timothy Olyphant in the series "Justified" on FX.

Jacob Pitts, Erica Tazel, and Timothy Olyphant in the series "Justified" on FX.

Photo: Copyright 2015, FX Networks. All Rights Reserved.

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AMC's "Mad Men" ends after seven seasons.

AMC's "Mad Men" ends after seven seasons.

Photo: Justina Mintz, Associated Press

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Joel Mchale on "The Soup." The show ends after 11 years on E!

Joel Mchale on "The Soup." The show ends after 11 years on E!

Photo: E!, Timothy White/E!

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Stephen Rannazzisi, Nick Kroll, Mark Duplass, Paul Scheer and Jon Lajoie are shown here on the show "The League" by FX.

Stephen Rannazzisi, Nick Kroll, Mark Duplass, Paul Scheer and Jon Lajoie are shown here on the show "The League" by FX.

Photo: Patrick McElhenney, FX

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Josh Gad and Billy Crystal in “The Comedians,” on FX.

Josh Gad and Billy Crystal in “The Comedians,” on FX.

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The cast of "Parks and Recreation" on NBC.

The cast of "Parks and Recreation" on NBC.

Photo: NBC, Chris Haston/NBC

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Jon Stewart hosts "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" #JonVoyage on Aug. 6, 2015 in New York City.

Jon Stewart hosts "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" #JonVoyage on Aug. 6, 2015 in New York City.

Photo: Brad Barket

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"Sons of Anarchy" on FX ends after seven seasons.

"Sons of Anarchy" on FX ends after seven seasons.

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Anna Friel in "American Oddyssey" on NBC.

Anna Friel in "American Oddyssey" on NBC.

More TV in 2015 and some of it was great

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2015 wasn’t a particularly stellar year for television in general, but it was significant for one reason: The number of scripted series on all content platforms broke the 400 mark for the first time. That’s pretty remarkable, considering that not too long ago, there was a good deal of hand-wringing among those who care about well-written TV that reality shows were going to take over the entire medium.

More by David Wiegand

2015 saw measurable growth in scripted series on “each distribution platform — broadcast, basic and pay cable, streaming — led by significant gains in basic cable and digital services,” according to Julie Piepenkotter, executive vice president for research for FX.

The biggest growth in scripted series was in the basic cable category. Not only are channels like FX creating more scripted shows, we’re also seeing reality show platforms sticking their toes into the water with scripted series as well, no doubt seeing the handwriting on the wall that audience interest in reality TV is finite. As recently as 2011, there were only two shows available through online services; there are 44 today (Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu/Plus, Crackle, Yahoo).

In some ways, you already knew that, simply because there are many more shows to choose from now than there were a couple of years ago. Factor in the increase in the ways to access TV content, including smartphones, tablets and computers, and you have another reason for the exponential growth in content in general and scripted content in particular.

But what does it mean for the TV viewer? First, it means that, for a while, the industry may have been fiscally wise to count on reality shows, because they’re cheaper to make. But over time, many have worn out their welcome, especially as imitators popped up on other channels. “American Idol” begat “America’s Got Talent,” “Dancing With the Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” “The Voice”— and now “Idol” is exhausted and heading into its final season next month.

More scripted material may seem like a good thing, but it hasn’t necessarily resulted in more high-quality scripted material. This year, broadcast seems to have tacitly acknowledged it can’t compete on the same quality level as streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, or basic and premium cable. Most of the new broadcast shows of what’s left of the fall season were imitative and mediocre. Watchable in some cases, but nothing to write home about.

It took the broadcast networks until November to cancel the first new fall show — “Wicked City” on ABC. That’s pretty late. There were plenty of other candidates for cancellation, based on critical reaction and low ratings numbers. But the networks held on by their fingernails, almost as if to say, “Who cares? We know our job is to churn out mediocre content and we’ll just milk these shows for whatever paltry benefits we can get, rather than throw more money at another new show that may not do much better.”

There were some great shows on broadcast this year, but almost all of them were holdovers from previous seasons — “The Good Wife,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” “Mom.”

The fact is, if you’re looking for extraordinary television, you have to go to cable and streaming content providers. There is still a place for broadcast and it’s an important place, but the networks have to step it up or risk losing an even greater share of the TV audience to digital channels, cable and streaming platforms, all of which are adding new shows to further increase the options for TV viewers. Of the new broadcast shows, “Quantico,” “Limitless” and “Blindspot” were among the better options, but they don’t quite hit the level of creativity and imagination you see in shows like “The Man in the High Castle,” “House of Cards,” “Transparent” or “Red Oaks” — all streaming content.

The sheer number of new shows available in 2015 means that there are going to be more mediocre shows, which, to be simplistic, means the great ones stand out even more.

Noah Hawley’s “Fargo” is not only the year’s best drama, but the best show of the year. The second installment of the anthology series was even better this year than last, exuding an additional sense of confidence after racking up a bunch of Emmys in September. Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None” is comic perfection. USA doesn’t find itself on end-of-year best lists very often, but “Mr. Robot” more than earned a spot on the list. The show was so smart, so moody, so hip that it even hooked increasingly elusive viewers in their 20s.

“American Horror Story” has had OK seasons and very good seasons, but this year’s “Hotel” was off the chain, with Lady Gaga swanning her way through the vacant, shadowy halls of a once-elegant hotel.

To compile the list, I looked at the full calendar year simply because the fall season is a fast disappearing vestige of another era. There are no “seasons” anymore, so why consider only the shows broadcast channels (for the most part) offer in September? “Empire,” the only broadcast show on the list, made the cut largely because of its first season, which launched in January. The second season was fun but suggested the possibility of plateauing in the future. Still, the show gets that it’s not an embarrassment if television is actually entertaining.

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. E-mail: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV

The best of 2015

1. “Fargo,” FX. The second installment of the anthology series created by Noah Hawley maintains its link to the original Coen brothers film and the show’s first season, but with new characters and situations, this year involving an organized crime family in North Dakota. It was funny, bleak, almost Beckettian. The show is getting compared to “Breaking Bad” and Hawley to Vince Gilligan, which more than justifies the sweet production deal he just signed with FX.

2. “Master of None,” Netflix. Aziz Ansari stars as an Indian actor in a masterpiece of sly, smart and really funny comedy that the former “Parks & Recreation” actor created with Alan Yang.

3. “Difficult People,” Hulu. Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner play two absolutely insufferable people, and you love every minute of laughing at their self-obsession and near-total obliviousness to the existence of other people in the world.

4. “Deutschland 83,” SundanceTV. Jonas Nay stars in a gripping, smartly nuanced drama about a young East German (Jonas Nay) who is recruited by the Stasi in 1983 to spy in West Germany. The show’s writing and character development were top notch, and nothing was lost in translation in the subtitled German import.

Photo: Chris Large, Associated Press

"Fargo."

"Fargo."

5. “Mr. Robot,” USA. Rami Malek was the breakout star of this USA drama about a young, disaffected computer engineer with significant social adjustment issues and a drug habit who is recruited by a group of cyberterrorist hackers. Their target is E Corp., which Malek’s character calls Evil Corp. TV’s hippest show in years.

Photo: K.C. Bailey, Associated Press

"Master of None."

"Master of None."

6. “Casual,” Hulu. Hulu scored again this year with a slyly dark comedy about a recently divorced woman (Michaela Watkins) who, with her teenage daughter, moves in with her younger man-child brother and tries to re-enter the dating world, where love need not apply.

7. “Catastrophe,” Amazon. An American in London on business hooks up with an Irish woman and the two then go about their business, until she (Sharon Horgan) tells him (Rob Delaney) she’s pregnant. Now what? “Unknown,” and that’s what makes the basis for this sublime comedy about two people just trying to work things out.

8. “The Diplomat,” HBO. The late Richard C. Holbrooke, who died in 2010, was a singularly gifted diplomat and not always a great father. His son David wanted to know what made his father the smartest man in any room where international negotiations were taking place. What he learned becomes a useful lesson in foreign policy history with obvious implications to where we stand in the world today.

9. “Empire,” Fox. Big, brassy melodrama about a family-owned record label, starring Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard, with killer original music. The themes are Shakespearean, but Lady Macbeth has nothing on Cookie Lyons (Henson).

10. “American Horror Story: Hotel,” FX. The best installment yet of the over-the-top Ryan Murphy-Brad Falchuk anthology series gives us Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates, Matt Bomer, Sarah Paulson and others dressed to the nines and slinking around a once-elegant Art Deco hotel with a lurid past. The hotel, and Gaga’s character as well.

The worst of 2015

1. “Wicked City,” ABC. An icky drama about a pair of romantically involved serial killers defied the odds this fall: At a time when nothing was getting canceled in broadcast, ABC pulled the plug on the show after three episodes. Deep into the season, it became broadcast’s first canceled show.

2. “Truth Be Told,” NBC. An unfunny sitcom about a young ethics professor and his wife and friends who cannot seem to have even a casual conversation without tripping over some perceived land mine of political correctness. The premise was exhausted before the end of the first episode.

3. “True Detective,” HBO. The first year of the anthology series was brilliant; the second year, with an entirely different cast, was a mess from the get-go, but there were glimmers of hope that creator Nic Pizzolatto would pull it out of its tailspin. He didn’t. It got worse, and unwatchable.

4. “Backstrom,” Fox. Rainn Wilson starred as a heavy drinking, unlikable Portland detective in a dreary drama that was supposed to have darkly comic undertones. It was a sad misuse of Wilson’s otherwise considerable talent.

5. “Mr. Robinson,” NBC. Craig Robinson starred as a music teacher and part-time musician who had a terrible lounge act. The lounge act was better than the show itself.

6. “Into the Badlands,” AMC. The show has great martial arts scenes, and Danny Wu is credible as chief henchman for a feudal baron, but the rest of the show is a mess. For some reason, the evil baron lives in a McMansion and talks like Foghorn Leghorn, leaving us desperate for Porky Pig to pop up with the relieving announcement, “Th-th-th-that’s all folks.” No such luck.

Photo: Eric McCandless / Eric McCandless / ABC

“Wicked City.”

“Wicked City.”

7. “Dr. Ken,” ABC. Ken Jeong could do no wrong, until he signed onto this thuddingly unfunny sitcom about a doctor and his psychologist wife.

8. “One Big Happy,” NBC. The Ellen DeGeneres-produced sitcom about a lesbian (Elisha Cuthbert) carrying her best friend’s baby and trying to get along with his live-in girlfriend was a concept in desperate search for decent writing and actual humor. It lasted one big unhappy season.

9. “Best Time Ever With Neil Patrick Harris,” NBC. Everyone loves NPH, but not when he’s in a corny mess like this one. The material and setup are so bad, it saps NPH of his trademark charm

10.“Agent X,” TNT. Sharon Stone played the vice president of the U.S., who secretly oversees a special agent to execute “Mission Impossible”-like capers. Stone was nothing more than set decoration. Dan Quayle would have been a better casting choice. The show was impeached by critics and viewers and canceled by TNT.